Motivation and Self-efficacy


 


Motivation is a piviotal concept in most theories of learning. In most forms of behaviorial theory, motivation was strictly a function of primary drives such as hunger, sex, sleep, or comfort. According to Hull's drive reduction theory, learning reduces drives and therefore motivation is essential to learning. The degree of the learning achieved can be manipulated by the strength of the drive and its underlying motivation. It can be said that the fundamental aim of motivation is to stimulate and to facilitate learning activity. Learning is an active process that needs to be motivated and guided toward desirable ends.
Origins and determinants of motivation is different according to the behaviorists and cognitivists. Behaviorists sees physiological needs such as food, sleep as the determinants of motivation, whereas according to the  cognitivists, cognitive processes are mediators of motivation such as not just any food but values mediated between drive and hunger
Students who are motivated to reach a certain goal will engage in self-regulatory activities. Self-regulation is the process in which students activate, take control of and evaluate their own learning. Self-regulation promotes learning, which leads to a perception of greater competence, which sustains motivation toward the goal and to future goals.
Goals can be classified as proximal or distal. Proximal goals are objectives that are attainable in a fairly short time. For example, studying a page in the textbook may be considered a proximal goal. Distal goals are objectives that take longer to attain. For example, obtaining a university degree is a distal goal.
Goals also can be classified as learning goals or performance goals.  Learning goals place a higher priority on long-term development and success, whereas performance goals drive accomplishments for a stated period of time. Want to get an A on a  test can be considered as a performance goal while wanting to understand why the USA was one of the last countries to enter WWII as a learning goal.

According to the self-efficacy theory the beliefs become a primary, explicit explanation for motivation (Bandura,). Self-efficacy is the belief that you are capable of carrying out a specific task or of reaching a specific goal. There are 4 sources of self-efficacy and these are Performance Accomplishments, Vicarious Experience, Social Persuasion, and Physiological and Emotional States.
Motivation in Second and Foreign Language Learning (Dörnyei, 1998)
Motivation is the most used concept for explaining the failure or success of a language learner. In 1985, Gardner introduced three sub-measures namely the intensity, the desire to learn and the attitude towards learning to explain the motivation factor.[ He argued that if these three criteria work together, the learner could effectively use motivation as a tool for L2 acquisition. However  Dornyei and other researchers, challanged this theory by claiming that  one can have a ‘strong’ desire to learn, but have a different attitude towards the learning process itself.
Knowing that success in a task is due to the fact that someone is motivated, a teacher should try to increase motivation of  the learners first.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Metacognition and Embodied Learning

Image
Metacognition  Metacognition , a term that was first defined by John H.  Flavell  in 1979, is basically thinking about thinking. With metacognition, we become aware of our own learning experiences and the activities we involve ourselves in our paths toward personal and professional growth. We are better able to understand ourselves in the whole process of learning and can develop skills to think about, connect with, and evaluate our learning and interactions each day. According to Flavell,  metacognitive knowledge is “knowledge about one’s own cognitive processes or products. Metacognition has been  identified  as an essential skill for learner success. It allows students to drive their learning, build student agency, and foster a growth mindset in learning. In order to develop metacognitive skills and habits in the classroom •         First, students must have the opportunity to practice and so must be placed in situations that require metacognition. They sh
Read more

Skinner’s Operant Conditioning Theory & Discovery Learning

Image
Skinner’s Operant Conditioning  Skinner is regarded as the father of Operant Conditioning, but his work was based on Thorndike’s (1898) law of effect. It is on the matter of behavioral conditioning (not then formulated as such) which states that "Behavior that is followed by positive consequences is likely to be repeated, and behavior followed by unpleasant consequences is less likely to be repeated". Operant conditioning is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning, an individual makes an association between a particular behavior and a consequence (Skinner, 1938). Skinner identified three types of responses, or operant, that can follow behavior. • Neutral operants: responses from the environment that neither increase nor decrease the probability of a behavior being repeated. • Reinforcers: Responses from the environment that increase the probability of a behavior being repeated. Re
Read more

Sİtuated Learning Theory & Activity Theory

Image
Situated  Learning  Situated learning is an instructional approach developed by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger in the early 1990s, and follows the work of Dewey, Vygotsky, and others who claim that students are more inclined to learn by actively participating in the learning experience. Situated learning emphasizes the context and application and use of knowledge, rather than memorizing isolated facts and accumulating skills.    ’The theory of situated cognition…claims that every human thought is adapted to the environment, that is,  situated ,  because what people  perceive,  how they  conceive of  their activity, and what they  physically do  develop together’’ (Clancey, 1997, p.1-2 as cited in Driscoll, 2015).  Lave and Wenger (1991) state that ‘the notion of situated learning now appears to be a transitory concept, a bridge, between a view according to which cognitive processes (and thus learning) are primary and a view according to which social practice is the primary, generativ
Read more